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The six-day-a-week PRT regimen includes three days of aerobic running and three days of muscular endurance training. The runs consist of 40-minute sessions of group-paced running, self-paced running and six 30-second sprint interval runs separated by brisk walking. Each week, trainees will be timed on a two-mile run.

The muscular endurance training takes up to 48 minutes on a circuit of crunches, leg lifts, pushups, flutter kicks and pullups. These are designed to improve upper body and abdominal strength quickly.

The Basic Training graduation standards are also increasing. To graduate from Air Force Basic Training, recruits will have to achieve the following minimum standards:

Males:

• Two Mile Run - 16:45
• 1.5 Mile Run - 11:57
• Sit-Ups - 50 (in 2 minutes)
• Push-Ups - 45 (in 2 minutes)

Females:

• Two Mile Run - 19:45
• 1.5 Mile Run - 13:56
• Sit-Ups - 50 (in 2 minutes)
• Push-Ups - 27 (in 2 minutes)

Even the most fit are finding the PRT regimen a welcome and rewarding challenge. Airman Francis Collins, a trainee in the 321st Training Squadron and the week's top male athlete, admitted, "The (physical conditioning) program we started out with didn't meet expectations, but the new (PRT) standards challenge us."

"We’re very much focused on building a fitter force here at BMT,” said Col. Sharon Dunbar, 737th TRG commander. “Our Air Force today is vastly different than it was a decade ago. So is basic training. Our military training instructors do an amazing job in preparing the young men and women entering our Air Force for the physical and mental rigors of the expeditionary Air Force. At the same time we’re training airmen for success, we’re showing them that fitness is as much a lifestyle as it is an operational necessity.”

Collins, who will train to be a firefighter, said members of the Air Force should apply the core value of “excellence in all we do” to meeting physical standards.

“I plan to go to the gym five times a week and run three times a week,” he said. “And that should be the standard for everybody, whether you're the fastest runner or the slowest runner. You should still work to make yourself better."